I was the guest speaker yesterday at Calvary Baptist, and the whole service was great. But for me, when Robin and I met a mother and her two year son Noah after the service that was most meaningful. Noah was born with cerebral palsy, brain damage,and needs a feeding tube. His mom was fighting tears trying to speak to me and Robin. We just encouraged her to never give up. This mom is a soldier to me. She loves her son so much and they been through so much in his short life so far. I know  a lot  people in my field of work would be mad at me when I say it makes me sad to see this little boy going through this. There’s a difference between pity and compassion and my heart just went out to him. We gave his mom our cell numbers so if she ever needs support or someone to talk to. I think too many people in the independent living movement and the disability community inside that movement are too hard. If  a person would say I feel bad about that person having to deal with their disability than they would get mad and say that your pitying them, and in a lot of cases that is not true. It’s not pity to care for someone else and the circumstances they face. God has called us to community and in a community each member must care about the next. We who have disabilities have a choice to make. We can use our lives to bring glory to God and encourage others or be prideful idiots and be miserable in our own circumstances. I hear it all the time in the disability community from people saying they don’t want to inspire anyone. I’m sorry to tell you, but if your disabled and are living an independent life, you’re empowering people to know they can do it to. So get off your high horse and encourage someone in your life today.

    After that little rant, I want to say if my sermon and me having cerebral palsy was just for Noah’s mother yesterday to have hope in her son’s future than I say Praise God. I love working at TRIPIL and being part of the IL movement but I can’t let my heart become numb towards people. There is too many Noahs out there for me to care about what my colleagues may think. All people need hope. Our hope needs to be in Jesus.